Children Abandoned in Squalor: The Unseen Consequences of our Deportation Policy

Spanish-language newspaper, La Jornada, has published an article discussing the deportation of children to Mexico under the current administration’s immigration policy.

{Translation}:

During the first seven months of this year, at least 90,000 Mexican children were deported by the U.S. government, under its anti-immigration policy, reported a study of the working group for migration issues of the PRI in the Chamber of Deputies [in Mexico].

…about 15 percent of children, some 13,500, are living near the Mexican border as orphans, without any government protection…

Most of these children are forced to survive by begging, stealing, and squatting, lending themselves out as prostitutes and drug runners:

One of the effects of lack of child protection in transit between Mexico and the United States, is that these fall into prostitution or drug trafficking networks when they are alone.

Our government is already terrorizing workers, denying due process, neglecting the dying and destroying communities – and now – abandoning children and forcing them into lives on the streets of Mexico. Not only is this a complete affront to the humanity and innocence of children, but the practice is also in direct conflict with the International conventions on children’s rights – which states that children cannot be deported, only repatriated.

This is absolutely outrageous and unacceptable. Our government touts “family values” as though they own the trademark on good families and communities. Yet they are abandoning innocent children in record numbers. I guess once they are across our borders, they aren’t our problem – out of sight, out of mind.

Just another example of how the dehumanization of immigrants allows our administration and the general public to turn a blind eye to the violation of human rights. Because, how can those rights be violated if they are less that human?